♡Roshni's POV♡

He cups my cheek to plant a gentle kiss to my forehead as we stand near the exit of our home. He is leaving for work and I came to drop him till the door.

Since two nights back, he has become extra caring towards me and even I have broken my promise to do something special for him. I made a breakfast to cheer him up the next morning, which consist of smiley pancakes, good morning with half sun written with chocolate sauce on the plate, fruits cut with alphabet cookie cutter to make his name and hot chocolate with marshmallow.

After Danish, I had promised myself to never do anything more than what I shall receive. I would never give the opportunity to anyone to hurt me. I will protect my feelings and invest limited efforts in the relationships.

But now, I don't mind breaking that promise because I know, he deserves this effort and will never hurt me ever in the future.

I am pulled out of my thoughts when he pulls away and whispers, "Take care and I will come soon for the dinner at your Uncle's place."

I sigh in sadness before asking, "Can't we make an excuse for the dinner? I don't wanna go."

He reasons, "It's his birthday and he called me to invite us, plus your family will expect you. We have to go, Your Majesty."

I retort, "Exactly, he called you and not me, so I am uninvited and can't come. Simple."

He chuckles before commenting, "After marriage, we are one. There is no need to invite both separately."

I cross my arms and argue, "That's cheating, injustice and inappropriate. I resign from the wife's post."

He informs, while grinning in amusement, "If I hadn't fixed a meeting with my client then I would have stayed back to continue this interesting argument. But forgive me for wanting to fulfil my work commitment, Your Majesty."

I punch his stomach playfully for teasing me and he plants another kiss to my forehead, while promising, "We won't stay long, don't worry."

I nod and bid bye as he turns to leave for work, while I complete some chores before leaving for Papa's office.

#

I fight the urge to roll my eyes, while listening to my aunt and mother's speech, "Exactly, one should plan kids before 30 and you are turning 26 in 8 months, Roshni. Your body will not support the child birth later. Plan now."

Tonight I will plan different ways to use Jerry's weapons on Gaurav for forcing me to come here. I gave him numerous reasons, yet he didn't listen, so he better watch out.

Even Ruchi decides to give her precious inputs, "Yes, even I want a niece or nephew."

Someone come and kidnap me! I promise to co-operate with the kidnapper.

Seems like God heard my plea and blessed my soul because my cousin arrives with the cake. I run from the kitchen to call the men from the living room.

Yes, men and women sit separately during get-together. Actually, women sit in the kitchen for the preparations and men keep ordering to bring drinks, snacks, food, etc. I don't understand, how they call it even a get-together.

Once I suggested, let's do a reversal and let the men serve to us. But everyone glared and scolded me as if I asked them to kiss the neighbour's wife in their own wife's presence. Men won't melt into water if they served a glass of water to their wife or sister and why can't women encourage them instead of making fun of their initiative?

Yes, my mother called Gaurav, my slave when he offered juice to me first during the wedding reception. Come on, he was being a gentleman and shouldn't my mother be happy for finding a caring man for her daughter.

I can write on stamp papers that women are equally responsible for inequality of gender in our society. Men, alone cannot be blamed.

I shake my head to push away these thoughts and make my way towards the living room, only to stop hearing my Uncle's voice, "I can't believe it, you and Roshni haven't planned a child yet?"

I slap my forehead silently. Doesn't people have any other topic to chat?

Then I hear Sujay's voice, "Wait a minute....Gaurav, have you and Roshni consummated your marriage?"

How dare he ask this question? Bloody rascal.

Gaurav clears his throat and tries to explain with a lie, "We have consummated our marriage, but the child is a huge responsibility."

Sujay states, "Once you have the child coming on its way then you will be able to handle the responsibility automatically."

I roll my eyes at his words. Leaving his pregnant wife alone, this moron came 500 kilometers away for Uncle's birthday and claims to handle the responsibility automatically.

Automatically, my foot!

But my father agrees to his favourite, "Sujay is right. You both will learn to handle the responsibility."

Of course, the first child is a guinea pig. If you learned to handle the responsibility then fine or else you have other child to make things perfect. Typical sick mentality!

The Sujay adds, "Plus, child birth makes the marriage successful. It brings the couple closer and strengthens their bond."

I roll my eyes at his low mind-set and my Uncle comments, "And women are always ready."

I heard enough nonsense and decided to interrupt them, but Gaurav's words stop me, "I am sorry Uncle, but the women are not always ready. They need to be physically, mentally and emotionally capable for carrying the child. Pregnancy and child birth plays the most important role. If she isn't prepared then that stage cannot be initiated."

He pauses for a minute and adds, "And Sujay, I don't agree with you. To make my marriage successful, if I have to give physical, mental and emotional pain to Roshni then I don't mind carrying the titles of 'unsuccessful' and 'failure' for my marriage. I will live as a failure, but will never allow anything or anyone, even myself to hurt my wife. Never ever."

Have you were felt the urge to hug someone as tight as you can without a care of the world? Well that's what I am feeling now. I want to hug him as tight as I can.

But I also want to ask God the same question, which he asked me that night - Why didn't we meet before we met our exes?

Before I can marvel on the thought further, Ruchi comes to check, why haven't I called everyone at the dining table.I compose myself and call the men to cut the cake. I just want to finish with the dinner and go back home with him.

I am done with humans for today.

#

I remove my bangles, while standing at the dressing table when he comes to stand behind me. I face him through the mirror and raise my eyebrows as he is staring at me with concentration.

He asks, "So, you heard the baby chat?"

I lower my gaze to keep the bangles in the box before nodding and going to remove my earrings. While he informs, "I hate Sujay. He owns the cheapest mindset in the God's green, but slowly polluting planet earth."

I giggle at him for copying my signature words, though agree by nodding then he states, "And your Uncle is so against of women. He didn't want us to have a child, he wanted us to have a son. I mean, people in today's time still want a son and consider women inferior to themselves. It's sick."

I comment with a smirk, "Welcome to my Family."

I move my hair to one shoulder and go to remove my chain, but he grabs the lock before I can and asks, "Have they ever said anything to you?"

I nod and he unlocks the end of my chain before explaining, "Whatever they said, just forget about it. They are not the people whose words can be implemented in your life. They own a sick mentality, so ignore their rant and concentrate only on the right things."

I smile sadly and take my chain from him before informing, "Then people tease me that 'after reading 4 books, the little girl has learned big things.' They will expect females to stand equal to males in terms of education, job and handling life problems, but never allow to take a stand for themselves in matters like marriage, kids and other major decisions of life."

He grabs my shoulders to turn me around to face him and assures, "I can't change their mentality, but you will never experience such biased behaviour here. My parents have given Mahek and Alia same rights, which me and Sourav hold. So, the same is applicable to you, whatever you wish to express or do, none of us will ever stop you unless it's really unethical, inappropriate or unsafe. Alight?"

He raises his eyebrows and I nod with a smile as I have already seen the difference in the mentality of our families.

His family showered me with love and blessings on knowing about my new profession, while my family taunted that it isn't a reliable career and won't give me success.

Sometimes I think, will a sex change operation make my family happy? None of my actions brings a smile on their face and here his parents, wait for opportunities to hug their children, including me and Mahek.

I am pulled out of my sad thoughts by my phone ringtone and he gets my phone from the bed. He smirks at the screen and shows me Jerry's incoming video call.

And I know that smirk means teasing her revengefully.

Nowadays, he never leaves a chance to tease her as she still threatens him and she always gets hyper on his pranks. Now won't be any different. My night is gonna get interesting now.

He walks closer and blinks reassuringly before smudging my lipstick with his thumb. Then uses same thumb to rub on his lips to cast a hint of the lipstick color on them.

Oh no! Jerry will erupt like a volcano.

He gives me the phone with a wink and runs his hand through his hair to make them messy.

I roll my eyes before answering the call to greet her, "Hey Jerry."

She opens her mouth to speak, but stops after noticing my lips and asks, "Why is your lipstick smudged in this way?"

Before I can answer, he walks behind me without looking at my phone and place his lips on my clothed shoulder. He makes kissing sound and moves his head as if kissing the length of my neck, while moaning my name.

This makes Jerry's eyes and mouth widen three time in shock and I fight the urge to laugh at her facial expression.

Jerry yells, "What the hell! Move your nasty lips away from my friend, you perverted hormonal rapist."

He pretends to be surprised to see her and lies innocently, "Jinal, now when you have seen us then there is no point of hiding and lying to you. We are young and have our needs, plus we are sleeping on the same bed. So, it happens quite often."

I push him away as he leans to pretend kissing and Jerry demands, "Quite often? What quite often? Why quite often? How quite often?"

He raises his eyebrows and asks mischievously, "How? You want me to demonstrate how I make love to Roshni? I don't mind, but ask your friend if she is fine to be watched by you. I think, it will be a sexy experience."

I glare at him and whisper, "If she kills you then don't come back to haunt me."

He leans closer, while glancing at the screen and whispers against my ear, "If she comes to kill me then my wife will protect her Lord Husband."

I shake my head in negative after he pulls away and Jerry yells, "How could you f-ing touch her? Didn't I warned you enough? I will kill you with my bare hands after using my each weapon efficiently on you. I will start with choking you with ropes and-"

He presses his front to my back and interrupts dreamily, "Oh ropes! Roshni loves when I tie her to bed and ravish her sexy body."

Now it is my turn to widen eyes in shock. Jerry will definitely use all her weapons on him now and none of us will be able to stop her.

While he continues, "And when we kissed with a strawberry that was-"

Jerry yells before he can finish his line, "I am coming, you scoundrel. No one will be able to recognise your dead body, I swear on my weapons, you will bleed till death."

She stands to walk away and he starts laughing, instead of panicking like me. She is fuming and he doesn't even care that his life is in danger.

I call her, "Jerry come here, Gaurav is kidding and he smudged the lipstick with his thumb. Nothing ever happened between us, I swear on my three Musketeers."

She comes back to the direction of her camera and stares at us with shock, causing him to laugh again. I give her an apologetic look and elbow his stomach, but he doesn't stop laughing.

While she accuses me after recovering from the shock, "You supported him in this disgusting prank! How could you?"

Before I can answer, he teases her, "Because she finally realised, who is the better friend and supporter."

Jerry glares at him and I move away to sit on the bed before talking with her, "Relax Jerry, you know, we won't do anything to ruin our friendship and we had an eventful evening. So, we actually needed a laugh to divert our mind."

She asks with a frown, "What eventful evening?"

I sigh and share the baby topic with everyone's opinion, which makes her roll her eyes in annoyance and she comments, "Your family is something."

I agree with a nod and she requests, "Babe, can you clean your lips. I am kind of getting terrible images."

He chuckles from the washroom, where he is washing his face with the door open and I nod at her before grabbing the make-up removal wipes.

Then we talked for sometime on her new job opportunity for which she needed his opinion as he owns the knowledge on the same industry. For the first time, they had a serious chat, though he teased her before disconnecting the call and without letting her reply.

I laughed before closing my eyes and saying goodbye to the eventful day.

#

I grin, stepping out of the car and greeting his family with a hug as we meet at the parking of a restaurant. We finally executed our dinner plan, which was pending from a week.

I am happy for two reasons. One, I get to dress in a knee length maxi dress because his parents have given me complete freedom. Two, I don't have to worry about anything because they never judge and listen to my opinion, though it differs. Plus, everyone seems super happy to meet me and welcomes with open arms.

As we settle inside the restaurant and I sit between Alia and my mother-in-law on their request, which makes him complain playfully, "Why do I suddenly feel as an adopted child?"

We giggle and Sourav teases his younger brother, "Because you are adopted and MY parents are very kind-hearted to not disappoint you with the truth."

He throws the napkin at his elder brother, who laughs in response and throws the napkin back.

Ayaan finds this exchange of napkin funny as he giggles in excitement and earns a long kiss from me to his chubby cheek. He faces me and leans over me, indicating to sit on my lap. I fulfill his wish and kiss his other cheek, making him giggle again. He is such a cute and cheerful child.

Alia grabs my attention by asking, "I hope you both are not planning to have a child now?"

I face her to realise, her question was directed towards me and Gaurav before adding, "Don't plan until a year or so. Enjoy your life before taking the big responsibility."

I face him with raised eyebrows and his mother-in-law gives her input, "Exactly. As much as I wish to have a granddaughter now, you both need lots of time to understand each other completely. Because parenting stage is very crucial in the journey of life."

She faces her husband, who continues her explanation, "And your compatibility will determine the nature of your child. If you both are happy and healthy in your marriage, the child will effortlessly become happy and healthy. We will certainly help in case of work, emergency or difficulty, but at the end, parents have the highest impact on the child's life. So, think wisely and plan, there is no need to rush."

I smile at them with a nod, though child is an impossible decision in our arrangement. But the way, they understand the need of time for planning a child is commendable.

How much I wish my family owned similar opinion!

Pushing these thoughts away, we start talking with casual topics. Sourav informs about his plan to visit Mahek's home for a few days as her parents want to spend time with Ayaan. She seems to be happy to visit her family for two long weeks.

Even their relationship is envy worthy. Sometimes I think, how is everyone's relation so perfect and ours is just an arrangement. But you don't get everything what you wish for!

So, I push away those thoughts and concentrate on Ayaan, who is loving the apple from the fruit salad, his father ordered for him.

We chatted on Alia's future plans of visiting Kerela for photography project, where I tease her parents by asking of her plans to convert our home into a studio. They confessed it was a trick to know my intentions and I feigned to be upset, only to be pampered by them. He didn't complain and watched happily, how his parents were trying to cheer me up.

Then we wished Alia luck for her project and her protective brothers lectured her on safety, making us roll our eyes.

Typical brothers.

#

Seriously typical brothers.

Both challenged each other for 20 shots of Vodka post dinner. Then got completely wasted, couldn't stand on their feet and didn't recognise their own wife.

Yes, Sourav flirted with me, assuming I am Mahek and Gaurav was almost going to reveal our little secret to her. But I stopped him at the right time and we decided to leave, so the boys can sleep to get their senses back in the working order.

Dragging him from restaurant to his car was easy because Alia helped me, but now dragging him from his car to our home till the bed is a huge task. Because one, he is so heavy and two, he is blabbering nonsense, while giggling to himself.

Yet I somehow manage to drop him on our bed before removing his shoes. I cover him with a duvet and move away to change my clothes. But he holds my wrist and pulls me over him then wraps his arms around my waist as I try to stand.

I request, "You need to sleep, Gaurav. Leave me."

He complains with a pout, "If I will leave you then I will become lonely and depressed."

I was going to react to his words, but realise that he is drunk and completely unaware of his actions. So, I just nod and pat his shoulder in assurance before trying to escape from his embrace.

Though my attempts fail as he rolls us to press my back on the bed and hovers over me with an annoyed look. I sigh in helplessness and he keeps staring at my face intensely.

He whispers, "Just because I am drunk that doesn't mean, I don't know what I am saying."

I roll my eyes and retort, "Of course you know what you are saying! That's why you were about to disclose our secret to Mahek just an hour back."

He pouts before reasoning, "One mistake is excusable and now we are alone, so let me tell you my deep inner thoughts. Please."

He pleads with his unique aqua blue eyes and I nod in approval, knowing that I have to listen in order to convince him to sleep. He smiles sheepishly and adjusts himself at my side on failing to balance his weight on his arms to not crush me.

Then grabs a strand of my hair to play and whispers, "I was remembering Tanushree from last 2 days."

For some reason, my heart skips a beat at his words. Why is he remembering her from 2 days? Does he want to divorce me and go back to her? But she betrayed him and currently living with some rich businessman. Did she leave that man and wants to patch-up with him?

I am pulled out of my thoughts when he adds, "Because she did the best work on God's green, but slowly polluting planet earth by cheating and leaving me. Otherwise I would have never proposed to you."

I am still shocked to react and he elaborates, "She ruined my faith in love and I never got interested in any girl with whom Jay and Durga forced me to go on dates. I purposely selected those girls from the matrimony website, which I knew won't reach till marriage. I didn't let anyone enter my life in any way, not even for a short period of time."

I feel his fingers on my cheek to caress them as I am completely drowned in his eyes and he whispers, "Then I saw you at Harsh's place."

He smiles before continuing, "I never talked with random people or strangers, especially a girl. But that day, I surprised myself by talking with you and the pain in your eyes when you remembered something. I just....I just wanted to hug you....to assure you."

I remain speechless with his confession and he whispers, "I couldn't stop thinking of you and allowed that one wall to break for letting you enter my life. I needed you because I was confident that you are the perfect girl."

I open my mouth to speak, but he shakes his head in negative and turns me to lay on my side. He presses my back against his chest and encircles his arm around my waist, spooning me gently.

He whispers, "Ssshhhh. Don't say anything."

I obey and he continues, "I don't need a response from you, neither I want my confession to change anything between us. I know, this chat is not our usual one and I was hesitant, so I took the help of alcohol. I...I had purposely challenged Sourav and I knew, I was talking with Mahek in the restaurant. I never lost my senses."

His voice suddenly turns normal at the end and he adds, "I just needed a reason to share my inner thoughts without fearing to hurt or scare you. I was planning to keep my sober side a secret, but I can never lie or hide anything from you. I want to stay 100% honest and loyal to you, Roshni. Yet if I scared or hurt you then I am sorry. I just wanted you to know everything and understand that you are an important person in my life. I don't want our relation and bond to get affected in the future. What we have, may not have a suitable title, but we are happy and that matters, right?"

I nod, agreeing to his words silently and he whispers, "Don't overthink. I just wanted to share my thoughts. We are still the same as we were a few minutes back."

I turn around to face him, and find his features sober and sincere with a hint of smile, lacing his lips. He raises his eyebrows and I nod in approval before moving closer to hug him. He embraces me and presses a kiss to my head, assuring me silently.

I don't utter a word in response because it's not needed. He knows me enough to understand my emotions towards our relation. Even I am well aware of his and with this confession now, he has given me the needed assurance to never be scared of anything.

I don't know, what will happen in the future. But I am sure, we have each other's UNDIVIDED SUPPORT AND CARE to handle it.

************

That's all for now.....will update next part as soon as possible.....hope you liked this part, do give your reviews...till then Keep Smiling and Take Care

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